


Well,

by orphan_account



Category: Critical Hit (Podcast)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-05
Updated: 2014-05-05
Packaged: 2018-01-22 00:59:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1570106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They go to meet smith's parents, after the fact</p>
            </blockquote>





	Well,

So. There’s Diamond Throne. About as grand as you remember it, just not as grand as some of the things you’ve seen since last time you were here.

And on the rural outskirts of the city proper is a kind of a suburb, right up against a forest. Closest to the trees is a house, with a forge.

You’re standing outside the door, hand ready to knock.

But.

You can’t. And the two behind you, who look about as sick as you feel don’t look like they’re going to ask you too, either.

You stand there till your arm hurts, and you lower it, slowly. You take a shaky breath.

Torq says, quietly, “We got to do this. You know we got to do this.’

And you nod, and Orem nods, because you do  _need_ to. But you say, ‘I- I can’t.”

As you take another deep breath Torq reaches over your shoulder and knocks on the door.

You wait for only a moment before a shortish chubby woman opens the door, hand over her eyes to block out the sun that’s behind you.

She says, “Um. May I help you?”

You look among yourselves- It’s Orem who speaks this time.

“We have news about your son Smi- James. May we come in?’

She sort of bites her lips, look all of you up and down, and says, “Yeah. Sure”

  
  


You walk in; the room isn’t very large, it’s stuffed with a table and a lot of chairs and the woman gestures for you to sit down, which you do. She excuses herself for a moment, comes back into the room followed by a man much taller bulkier and with a lot more soot and freckles on his face.

(And he’s wearing all the tools of the forge. Like Smith was, when you first met him)

He leans down, puts his hands on a chair.

Says, “You have news about our son?”

The note of hope in his voice  _hurts._

You hear Torq take a breath behind you.

You say, “No. I’ll say it”

And as you talk you realize you can see two kids peek around the door frame behind their parents.

You take a deep breath and then you say, “James- your son- is dead”

You watch as she takes a deep breath and he hangs his head

“But” you say “b-but it was really heroic. He…”

Your throat is getting tight and your hear your own voice is getting hoarse and Torq puts his hand on your shoulder and continues for you.

He and Orem switch off with each other as they keep loosing their nerve. They talk about how he sacrificed himself for the good of the plane, how good he was at stopping the moon creatures and lived that whole time with a god in him. Was probably the reason that you were able to defeat it at all.

You can’t find it in you to speak. You just watch their faces get hard, their hearts drop.

(Yours does too, again)

The father holds his hand to his face, the mother her hand to chest.

They look at each other, sigh.

He says, “Thank you for telling us”

After a moment she says, “Would you like something to drink?”

You look at Torq and Orem –their faces are filled with misery and guilt and you feel sick. His father sits down across from you all while the mother goes to make tea.

You can’t look at each other-he’s just tapping his fingers on the table.

And after a bit she sits down, slides over a platter with some plain looking cups filled with plain looking tea over to you.

You take one. They’re looking at their cups, you’re looking at yours, and you are absolutely not looking at each other.

And then she says, “Even though it was all those years ago, we still had hope he would come back.”

The father shakes his head, says, “He was going to take over the forge someday”

  
  


And you see, behind them a line of four kids- they must be ten years younger than he was- walk out, solemnly. Hands behind their backs.

Then the one that looks oldest (girl, big mess of hair and freckles, too) looks up, right at you.

Asks, “You guys miss him too, Yeah?”

And god.  _God. She has the same face._

You’re stuck looking at her like a deer in the headlights- fist clenched to keep from shaking.

After a few false starts you manage to work out past your throat, “Yeah”

She just nods at you.

And you…

You have to leave.

You stand up, feel Torqs hand drop from your shoulder and bow your head

 _Try_  to say “I’m sorry, I need to step out” but you’re stuttering so bad you don’t think they understand.

  
  


  
  


You get outside, shut the door and slump down againt the frame.

You’re shaking so badly you keep missing your own tears with your hand and you  _know_  you’re going to have nightmares tonight.

(The one where you could have saved him if you had been just a little bit faster and the one where he never has to climb in the fuse at all)

  
  


You don’t know how long you sit there, trying and failing miserably to breath normally.

After a bit the door opens, and you look up to see the mother, hands on her hips and tears still in eyes.

  
  


She smiles grimly at you. Says, “You liked him a lot, huh?”

And the shaking starts back up all over again.

Your voice shakes with your body and you say,”Yeah. Yeah I did.”


End file.
